New York has a single team representing the state for March Madness this year, but it’s a good one: the Rick Pitino-led, Queens-based St. John's Red Storm.
However, for Empire State sports bettors, it could be one team in an NCAA basketball tournament or 20. Either way, it doesn’t matter, because New York’s rules for sports betting mean local punters can’t wager on the state’s college teams.
That might be painful for bettors, but rules are rules. And under the state’s sports betting law, it is prohibited to bet on “a sport or athletic event in which any New York college team participates regardless of where the event takes place.”
In other words, licensed online sportsbooks in New York, such as DraftKings or FanDuel, are banned from taking bets on the Red Storm, whether in March or any other month.
Not in my house
That might sting given St. John's is a well-regarded two-seed for the men's tourney. Pitino led the Red Storm to Big East regular season and tournament titles, and they could make a nice run in the West Region of the March Madness bracket.
But anybody at Madison Square Garden over the weekend who had money riding on St. John’s wasn’t making those bets with a sportsbook licensed by local regulators. Again, that’s just not allowed.
Also not allowed in New York is betting on college player props. That’s another no-no under the state’s sports wagering rules, which is intended to protect players from harassment by gamblers.
“As regulators of the largest sports betting market in the United States, we continue to believe the prohibition of college proposition betting on student-athletes is appropriate,” New York State Gaming Commission chairman Brian O’Dwyer wrote in a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker last April.
The Garden State beckons
So, what is allowed then?
Well, New Yorkers are free to bet on any other game in the NCAA basketball tournament, as wagering on college sports is generally permitted. That wagering just can’t involve St. John’s or another New York school.
And, if they're up for a drive, New Yorkers could always head to another state to try to get down on St. John’s.
Nearby New Jersey also bans betting on its state colleges and college games played in the state. This could complicate things for Garden State bettors looking to get action down on the East Region's Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games scheduled to be played in Newark.
However, wagering on a New York-based squad like the Red Storm is fine in New Jersey. College player prop wagering is permitted in the Garden State as well.
A new loophole
There is one more thing worth noting for a New Yorker dying to legally bet St. John’s without having to flee the state. That is a “prediction market” like Kalshi, a federally regulated exchange allowing users to buy and sell event contracts, including for sports. This de facto sports wagering is available in all 50 states.
On Monday, a Kalshi user could buy a "yes" contract for St. John's to win the NCAA men's basketball title for four cents. That would mean a trader could be paid 96 cents for each St. John's contract they bought at that price if the Red Storm win the tournament.
You could also buy a "yes" contract for St. John's to defeat Omaha in the opening round of the tournament and advance to the second round; in other words, a single-game wager on the Red Storm. On Monday, those contracts were trading at 96 cents on Kalshi, meaning a holder would get four cents if heavily favored St. John's wins their opening game.
Kalshi, however, is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, not the New York State Gaming Commission. It technically isn’t permitted by New York state to take those sorts of bets from New Yorkers, even though it appears that the company could and perhaps already is.
The @NevadaGCB issued the following news release today. pic.twitter.com/BxFLaZgn1A
— Nevada Gaming Control Board (@NevadaGCB) March 14, 2025
That loophole could irk New York regulators and the state’s licensed sportsbook operators.
The legitimacy of federally regulated sports event contracts is being challenged by several entities, including the main lobby group for the legal gambling industry. Moreover, one state, Nevada, issued a cease-and-desist letter to Kalshi, which is still under review.
Yet it seems highly unlikely there will be any big changes to the legal status quo for prediction markets until March Madness is over. Until then, they are an alternative to state-regulated sportsbooks everywhere in the U.S., albeit lacking the variety of betting markets to which stick-and-ball bettors are accustomed.
